Schaeuble Says Must Have ‘Understanding’ for Greek Difficulties

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said there has to be “understanding” for the difficult situation Greece is in and it’s clear that the country lost time because of repeated elections. Photographer: Jock Fistick/Bloomberg

Aug. 23 (Bloomberg) -- German Finance Minister Wolfgang
Schaeuble said there has to be “understanding” for the
difficult situation Greece is in and it’s clear that the country
lost time because of repeated elections.

Still, giving Greece more time to meet its obligations
under the international aid program would not be a solution to
its problems and would cost creditors more after they “went to
the limits” of what’s economically justifiable, Schaeuble said
in comments to SWR2 public radio today that were e-mailed to
news outlets by the Finance Ministry.

Half a year after conducting a Greek debt writedown, “we
can’t simply say that’s not enough,” Schaeuble said. “That way
you’ll never gain the trust of the financial markets. And so
more time is no solution to the problems. The question is how we
win back confidence. But for that we need to wait for the report
of the troika that’s due in September.”